We’re going to be fine. We’ll all come out on the other side of this.
Oh my God. We’re doomed.
This is a great time to spend together as a family and re-connect
I can’t focus on family games and crafts right now.
Sleep is my happy place. It’s my escape from this dark reality.
I can’t sleep. I keep waking up in the middle of the night scared and worried about all the things.
This is just a glimpse into my brain these last three weeks. My family and I have been sheltering in place since March 13th. That was the kids last day at school and the following Monday was my husband’s last day at work.
First, the news was that the kids would be returning to school on April 6th. One week into our new homeschool life we found out that the kids would be home at least until May 1st. As we eased into the middle of the third week, we learned that the kids would be out of school and distance learning until the Fall. They will finish the school year with me as their teacher. Thankfully, they’re excited and really like that I’m their teacher. Their actual teachers have also been awesome. My son’s teacher is fully teaching via Zoom for over an hour every day and available to the kids most of the day for any questions that arise.
We’ll all be changed
My husband and I have been talking about how this is going to affect them down the road. This is a huge deal in their childhood. I remember things like the Challenger space shuttle exploding when I was a kid. It was a huge deal nationally. My everyday life didn’t change though. It didn’t keep me from spending time with my grandma because I was afraid of getting her sick. I wasn’t abruptly forced to spend a third of my school year away from my friends. My play space wasn’t out of the blue relegated to only my backyard for weeks on end.
I don’t have any ambitions of coming out of this with a new book or business. I just want to come out of this. Period. Full stop. I want my kids to come out of this and still be healthy, happy and hopeful. We are trying to create memories for them out of this that don’t revolve around coronavirus. So far, they’re good. They’re incredibly close and this had made them closer. I’m happy they have each other. They’ve made up games, built clubhouses and created murals – together. For this, I’m thankful.
This is a vastly different experience for all of us. I know it will change all of us, forever. I have no expectations of things going back to “normal”. “Normal” no longer exists and in so many ways, we are seeing why “normal” was never enough to begin with.
